


Bees in Bed with Books

by Kiiratam



Series: Bees in Bed [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Reading, Ruby is oblivious, Weiss suffers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-06 08:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21223241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: That most lewd of activities: reading.Takes place between Volumes 1 and 2. (My BMBLB fic index)





	1. Blake Finishes

"Hey Yang? Are you busy?"

  
With that tremor in Blake's voice, Yang absolutely wasn't busy. She abandoned the schematics of Bumblebee on her desk and spun around in her chair to look at Blake. Her friend was sitting in bed, her back to the wall, knees drawn up. Not crying, but Yang could see she was right on the edge of it. "I'm free. What do you need?"

  
"This is going to sound... really dumb of me." Blake was only barely looking at her. "But the book I just finished reading made me sad. Can I have a hug?"

  
That didn't sound dumb at all. "Sure." Yang pushed herself out of her chair and walked over to their bunk bed. The offending book was sitting on the covers next to Blake. Yang leaned on the side of her bed, ducking her head into Blake's space. "Want to come up here, or do you want me to come down?"

  
Blake picked up the book and set it on the floor, and scooted over. "Down here, please."

  
Nodding, Yang knelt down on the bed, her feet hanging off the edge. She put her arms around Blake, cradling her head and pulling her close. Blake hugged her back around the waist, burying her head in the hollow of Yang's neck. Tightly, but not the desperate clinging that Blake did when she was actually upset.

  
Should she ask about what had made Blake sad? It would be safer if Blake started talking about it, or gave her a line to follow. But just charging ahead - it worked fine for fights, but... people weren't fights. Oblique approach, then. "What book is it?"

  
"_The Sais of Passion_."

  
"Ohhh, 'sighs' of passion. I get it." Puns, her love language.

  
Blake sighed right next to her ear. "Yeah. And it's beautiful."

  
Yang pulled back a bit, looking at the book on the floor. "Same author as _Ninjas of Love_?"

  
Nodding, Blake said. "I really like her."

  
"You're not alone in that." Yang tried not to think too much about _how_ much she had liked it. She didn't need to start blushing.

  
And it was happening anyway. And Blake had noticed, leaning back in the circle of Yang's arms. She got a little smile, just a quirk of her mouth. "I think you'll like this one. It's got your favorite."

  
Yang fixed Blake with a steady gaze, trying to keep her face blank. "...Smut?"

  
She nodded. "Good smut." Blake couldn't keep it up any longer. She bit her lip and looked down, twisting her hands against Yang's back.

  
Looking away herself, Yang tried not to think about it too much. It wasn't like she hadn't shared smut with her Signal friends. Written, visual, whatever. Even some vaguely scandalous pictures of herself. She'd been feeling extra flirty, and- well, no point going back over the fallout from _that_.

  
But it had been different at Signal. Yang hadn't really cared what anyone else did with the smut she found or received. ...Apart from the Hot-For-Teacher-Fic starring her father, but Yang was pretty sure that Beryl has just shared that one with her to watch her reaction. It had only been a _little_ fire. The grass had come back the next year.

  
Blake slipped out of Yang's arms and reached down to grab the book. It wasn't like Blake completely lost control of herself when reading. She didn't just pull up her skirt and start - Yang made herself take the book when Blake handed it to her, and bailed out of that particular runaway train of thought.

  
Weighing the book in her hand, Yang asked, "I take it things don't end well."

  
Well, if Yang hadn't already seen it before, that was a textbook example of Blake's mysterious smile. She should take a picture and give it to Ruby for reference. "You'll just have to read it and find out."

  
Yang resisted the urge to read the ad copy on the back - it always gave things away. And she'd lost her place for planning Bumblebee's new mods - may as well start from the beginning, at this point.

  
Blake grabbed another book off the shelf and settled back down to read. She seemed to be recovered from her book-induced feelings, but...

  
"Do you mind if I stay here and read?" Being close might help Blake get her balance back. And this way, Blake could watch her face as she started reading. Which was always part of the fun of recommending a book.

  
"Go ahead." The mysterious smile was getting downright mischievous. "Let me know what you think."

  
Yang laid down on her front, feet up, and started reading.


	2. Yang Finishes

_Later that night, the rains came, co-mingling the blood of criminal and police, lovers and liars, the slain and the survivors. The gory mass sluiced down the streets, until it at last spilled into the sea, changing it not at all._

  
_ The locals talked about the slaughter for weeks afterwards, but the spiraling feuds danced ever inwards, and new banes overtook them. In time, no one who walked by recalled what had passed there - it was just another crossroads._

  
_ Tangled in the bough of the tree, invisible to the street and forgotten by all, were sais of Kazue and Itsuki. The storms did not shake them loose, and the tree began to grow around them. Songbirds built a nest around them, and the fledglings of that nest sang a sweeter song than their parents. _

  
_ To hear that song, if a sighing lover, was a sign of promise. Of hope for better days to come._

* * *

Yang closed _The Sais of Passion_ gently, and set the book aside. She rolled over in her bed, grabbing her pillow and shoving her face into it. Fifty pages from the end, she could see all the pieces moving into place, and she'd almost put the book down then. If Yang had just stopped reading, she could have staved off the inevitable tragic end for Kazue and Itsuki. But they had been so happy, so full of passion, and the assurance that they could escape the bonds of their lives. And Yang, like an idiot, had tried to ignore all the terrible things lurking in the background, all the wheels set in motion by their earlier mistakes. She had hoped, against the odds, that they would survive. Both of them. Even though Blake had nearly cried over the end when she'd finished it a few days ago.

  
Well, Yang had gone one farther, and was trying not to loudly sob into her pillow. It wasn't working very well.

  
She felt a light touch on her arm. "Yang?" Blake had noticed. "Hug?"

  
Still holding tightly onto her pillow, Yang nodded. She felt Blake hop up onto the top bunk, and lay herself down. Yang lifted an arm and Blake scooted underneath, wrapping an arm around Yang's back, and putting her head on Yang's pillow.

  
Having her there helped. Someone else who understood, even if Yang wasn't able to explain. The sheer... inevitability of it. _Could_ they have escaped? What could they had done differently? Or at least, done differently and still been them? What actual person could just... walk away from their life? All those bonds, those commitments, blood oaths and childhood promises, a vendetta passed down through blood...

  
Blake hugged her tightly. "I'm glad you liked it."

  
She had. She really had. Even the end. Even though it hurt. But it was a safe pain. And it was making her stronger. Helping her see different points of view, different angles.

  
The perspective switching alone had been worth the read. The same scene, with two very different minds working at it- It had started off as interesting, and informative, but using the same trick for the smut scenes...

  
Yang blew out a breath. The shiver running through her had disrupted her tears, and she didn't feel an overwhelming urge to start back up again. She turned her head and put her forehead against Blake's. "Thanks for letting me borrow it." She tried to smile. A little one answered her call. "Do you have anything a little less depressing?"

  
"Did you want farcical sex comedy, just smut with vague hints of a plot, fellow adventurers-to-lovers, what?" Yang could tell she had specific books in mind for all of those.

  
She reached up and stroked Blake's hair and her 'bow'. "My favorite smut peddler. You know just what I want."

  
From the door of their room, "Once! Just once!" Yang sat up in bed, Blake sitting up next to her, hands busy checking her bow. Weiss was standing in the doorway, notebooks in hand, fuming. "Can't you two do that _anywhere_ else?!"

  
Ruby peered over Weiss' shoulder, eyes bright. "Ooo, are we having a reading party in Yang's bed?" Weiss made a face that might have been intimidating if she wasn't so tiny and adorable. She just turned and sat down at her desk, starting her homework with a huff.

  
Yang laughed. "Sure, grab a book, sis." She turned to Blake. "Just grab whatever you think I should read next. I trust you."

  
_Wow_. That practically had Blake glowing. She gave Yang an _enormous_ smile, and slipped off the bed to crouch by her bookshelf, searching. Yang blinked a few times. She knew Blake liked books, but wow. All the resultant musings, and possible explanations, and worried theorizing, Yang threw a tarp over, and shoved it into the 'Unpack Later' garage.

  
And just in time, because Ruby blurred into her bed and started taking up as much space as she could, sprawling out and flipping open the Beach-Field-Strip edition of _Weapons Illustrated_. It _was_ almost beach time, wasn't it? Yang set out some defensive knees and elbows, trying to keep a space open for Blake to come back to, and pulled out her scroll, checking the forecast.

  
"Hey, sis, it looks like it's going to be nice next weekend. Want to head out to Secret Beach?"

  
Ruby was already engrossed in the glossy pages. "My, what lovely extended magazines you have..."

  
Blake hopped back up on the bed, holding two books. "Secret Beach?"


End file.
